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Alright, let's parse this horsesh*t statement in its entirety:

"UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza.

Guilty or innocent, they'd be making this same statement, so no point dwelling on it. Moving on...

"UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area. We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.

Huh! Well look at that. Nice little red-herring: 'we left on Oct. 12th, and don't know what happened there since.'

Yeah, but this about a tunnel being built prior to Oct. 7th, *ssholes. Notice how they're not actually addressing the issue at hand, nor denying anything in the timeline that matters....

"We understand, through media reporting, that the Israeli Army has deployed troops within the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City. We are therefore unable to confirm or otherwise comment on these reports..

Not relevant to the accusation at hand. The tunnel wasn't built after the Israelis moved in...

"In times of 'no active conflict' UNRWA inspects inside its premises every quarter, the last inspection for the UNRWA Gaza premises was completed in September 2023."

Cool, cool. Note that they don't define the "premises" in question- did they bother paying attention to anything below the basement linoleum? Or was that 'off-premises'...

He also claimed that, "UNRWA is a Human development and humanitarian organization that does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises."

Fascinating. So suddenly they've gone from 'ain't nothin' there' to 'hey, we're not competent to tell if anything was there.' Now why would they shift the goalposts like that..? [Note how they are NOT denying the tunnel, or even that they knew of it. Just that they couldn't detect it...]

"In the past, whenever suspicious cavity was found close to or under UNRWA premises, protest letters were promptly filed to parties to the conflict, including both the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities. The matter was consistently reported in annual reports presented to the General Assembly and made public.

LOL- we pinky-swear we filed letters of protest to Hamas. I'm sure that accomplished much, assuming it ever frickin' happened... And even that assumes they officially took any notice of a "cavity"- when their interest was to not take notice at all!

"These recent media reports merit an independent inquiry that is currently not possible to undertake given Gaza is an active war zone.

Independent inquiry. *snort*. Well, y'know, nothing can be proven until an independent examiner looks things over... They know damn well that neither Hamas nor Israel is letting some "independent" examiner come into a frickin' war zone. This is a deliberate attempt to make verification of the tunnel effectively impossible.

"The Israeli Authorities have not informed UNRWA officially about the alleged tunnel," he added.

Trying to place a veneer of illegitimacy (lack of "official" notification") on Israel.

It's a war- why the hell would a combatant need to 'officially' inform their enemy's collaborator that they found their dirty tunnel?!

Bottom line, this whole statement is lawyer-esque hand-waving that never firmly disclaims knowledge of the tunnel.